INSPIRING HAPPINESS

We are extremely grateful to you for enabling us in 2012 to send over czk 8 mil to various projects with Unicef, People in Need, World Vision India and others in Rwanda, Congo, India, Sahel as well as support projects in the Czech Republic.

And with this gratitude we share some of our learnings from this year as well as our new Zátiší Compass in the strong belief that Life is not about the number of breaths we take but about the moments that take our breath away : -)

1. Just as in a tennis Match, the best way to win is to keep the eyes on the ball & not on the scoreboard, the best way to maximize long term profits is not to make them the primary goal of the business.

2. Each & everyone of us has a lot of potential, is self motivated & wants to makea real difference, no matter how small that difference may be. We just need to TRUST & give autonomy. When we TRUST people, they always live up to the expectations they set for themselves.

3. Leadership is a role of immense responsibility. Although a conductor does not make a single sound himself, but is all powerful because he helps bring out the best of everyone else.

4. When we are Happy, productivity goes up by over 50% & creativity by over 300%. Research shows that only 10-15% of happiness can be attributed to external factors and 85 – 90% is internal to the person (so no need to go looking for it outside :-)). Happiness is when what you think, what you say & what you do are totally in Harmony.

RECIPE FOR EVERYDAY HAPPINESS:

The research at Harvard lays out a recipe for everyday Happiness which should not take more than 30 min everyday:

1. Be grateful for 3 things in our life every day.2. Exercise for at least 10-15 minutes.3. Meditate for at least 2-5 minutes.4. Write a positive message to someone (we don‘t necessarily have to know this person)5. Start to journal our most positive experience over the past 24 hours.

5. It is critical to do the things that we are passionate about & eventually find a higher purpose in life & not be afraid to accept vulnerability. There is a big difference between “making a living” and “making a life”.

6. Happier people are more responsible, more ethical and more morally sound as well as mentally & spiritually more affluent.

7. We do not choose to be born, we do not choose our parents or the country of our birth. We do not, most of us, choose to die nor the time of our death, but in this realm of choicelessness we do choose how we live.